Email ElizabethBankruptcy and Short Sales in Sacramento
The number of Sacramento short sales in bankruptcy seem to be declining since passage of SB 458, which amended California Civil Code 580 by adding paragraph E. This all-important piece of legislation passed in July of 2011 and, ever since then, banks that agree to a short sale must release a seller from liability, providing the seller did not commit fraud and the property involved was 1 to 4 units. This piece of legislation pretty much eliminated the need for many upside-down sellers to file a bankruptcy over a hard-money loan, providing the banks were agreeable to the short sale and there weren’t any other debts the sellers needed to discharge or rework.
Of course, if lawyers told you that, they wouldn’t get paid to do a bankruptcy. I don’t know of any lawyer who specializes in bankruptcy who would tell a person in debt not to file bankruptcy, but that’s not to say they don’t exist. It’s no different than asking a real estate agent if one should sell a home. I’m telling you that, and I am a Sacramento real estate agent. The answer is gonna be yes. Most of the time. For example, I am not a financial planner. Neither is your bankruptcy lawyer. If a person wants financial advice, a person should ask a financial advisor, an individual with no skin in the game — not a guy who works for American Express or a woman employed by State Farm Insurance — ask an independent advisor.
But people continue to rely on the advice of those in professions who get paid when the answer is yes, hell yes, do it.
There are basically 3 ways to deal with filing bankruptcy while contemplating a short sale. First, know that filing bankruptcy does not relieve a person of title to the property. A person will still own that property and need to deal with the sale of the home in some manner — the easiest most likely is a short sale. Here are 3 things an underwater seller on the brink of bankruptcy can consider:
- Short sale the home before filing bankruptcy
- Short sale the home during bankruptcy
- Short sale the home after bankruptcy
They are all difficult but #1 is generally a bit easier. It’s also the one in the middle that can cause complications and should be avoided because it can’t close, plus sellers would have to pay extra to the lawyer and they generally won’t. For starters, the short sale bank will probably not agree to a short sale unless the Trustee of the bankruptcy either sells the property or releases the property from the bankruptcy. Did you know that the Trustee can get paid a fee for selling a short sale? Yes, in some situations, a Trustee can receive $15,000, all the way up to $50,000-plus, depending on the sales price of the property. Do you know who pays that fee? The buyer.
It’s a premium paid by the buyer. Do you know any buyers who want to pay another $15,000 to $50,000 on top of market value? I don’t, but I suppose they are on the loose. These deals have to be cash, too. That requirement limits buyers as well. Doesn’t bode too well for the seller who just wants the property sold and gone.
I have a handful of homes in bankruptcy right now in which I represent the seller, as a Sacramento short sale agent. The short sale banks require written authorization from the sellers’ lawyer to do the short sale. In one bankruptcy short sale, the discharge was ordered in November of 2011. We are still waiting for the final discharge — 16 months and counting. The sellers’ lawyer promised the release would take 21 days in early February and she expected receipt on March 1. We are still waiting. Escrows are on hold. The short sale approvals are on hold. We are lucky we chose steadfast buyers. I hear lawyers are promising 4-month turnarounds, but I’m not seeing that promise materializing on this end of the business.
It might be better to either do a short sale before filing bankruptcy or after the bankruptcy has been discharged. Trying to short sale in the middle of a bankruptcy appears ripe with problems. But I’m not a lawyer, and I can’t give legal advice. That’s what the bankruptcy lawyers are for.
If you’re considering filing a Chapter 7 or a Chapter 13, make sure you thoroughly understand your options by consulting with a bankruptcy lawyer. For some, once the property is disposed of through a short sale, there might not be enough debts to qualify for a bankruptcy.
Reasons to Make New Mistakes as a REALTOR in Sacramento
Several journalists called yesterday to talk about real estate. One reporter wanted to discuss the market, multiple offers, and which way the market was heading. Any little thing could upset the apple cart by summer. Our market is squirrelly. Another talked about stripping homes for sale and vandalism (for a local Sacramento publication), a sorry state of affairs in town. The thing about being a busy REALTOR in Sacramento is the fact I always have something to talk about. There are zero days in which nothing whatsoever goes on. Something is always happening.
I shot photos of a home in the Med Center and signed a listing there yesterday. The craftsman bungalow will go on the market next week. It wasn’t until I arrived at my next destination in Gardenland that I realized I had left my camera bag and accessories at the first house in the Med Center. That’s what I get for not carting out all of my real estate belongings in my travel bag. When I left home yesterday morning, I thought I did not need to pack up my stuff in my travel bag because I wasn’t transporting my usual number of electronic gizmos, folders and lockboxes. But when I make an exception to my usual business practice, that’s when I can forget an item or leave it behind. So, it was really my fault that I left the camera bag and had to go back for it. Altering the status quo.
It’s another reason to always do things the same way. It prevents one from making mistakes. I take care not to make mistakes and especially not to repeat mistakes. If you repeat a mistake, it means you did not learn from it the first time around, and that makes you kind of a moron, I hate to say. The main thing to take away from a mistake is the lesson you learn. Making mistakes is the silver lining to messing up. One more thing to chalk up and swear you won’t ever do again.
It’s better, of course, to learn from somebody else’s mistake but we rarely do that. No, the great lessons in life we seem to be bent on learning ourselves first hand. Of course, it doesn’t help that we have our parents and other authority figures trying to give us advice. Like if you sit too close to the TV you’ll go blind. That’s just wrong and stupid. But in the back of your mind you might wonder about it. And when you realize just how wrong and stupid that kind of advice actually is then you begin to doubt everything else that person has ever told you, and you’re back to learning lessons the hard way. From experience.
And just think, if you never made another mistake in life, you might stop learning. And that would be absolutely horrible. Life is one long lesson.
So, if you’ve got a question about real estate in Sacramento, buying or selling a home or just want to talk with a REALTOR, it’s OK to call Elizabeth Weintraub. I’ve always got a perspective to share.
A Successful Elk Grove Agent Shares a Secret
I spend a lot of my time during business hours either talking to new clients on the phone or responding to questions via email. The actual amount of time spent driving around or doing paperwork such as signing new listings is minimal in proportion to the time I spend in communication with others. My brain is always on fire. Because of that, I am often direct, which means if a client is not used to dealing with a real estate agent who is upfront with them, it might be a bit unsettling at first. Yet, direct honesty always seems to be welcome.
Plus, I’ll let you in on a little secret. I think it was Mark Twain who said if you tell the truth you don’t ever have to remember what you said.
One of my callers was a potential seller in Elk Grove. I list and sell a lot of homes in Elk Grove, and throughout Sacramento, although not all of them are short sales these days. I’m getting quite a few calls from sellers who have equity. This particular guy started off the conversation by asking me how much I charge. I told him straight up that my commission — what I “charge” — is the least of his worries. Which is absolutely true. But I guess he was not prepared for that answer. Wha wha?
The thing is I charge the same amount I have always charged. Even after almost 40 years in the business, my commission has been the same. No raise for me. Whether it varies by a half a percent from some other agent’s commission is not really relevant, not in the overall scheme of things, and especially not in this hot market place. You’re not going to save any money by trying to negotiate an agent’s commission, even though all commissions are negotiable by law. You’re going to save money by choosing the best real estate agent. Period.
Nobody is going to gouge you or rip you off. And not this Elk Grove agent. Getting into escrow is the easy part. Closing it is the hard part.
You’ve got all kinds of agents in this business. My caller from yesterday said an agent told him he could get half a million for his house — a home in Elk Grove that comps out in the upper 300’s. Perhaps he misunderstood the agent or perhaps the agent was overly zealous, hard to say. I tried to explain that simply because words poured out of somebody’s mouth does not mean this seller will score a windfall upon resale. But after a few minutes of discussion, it was clear that trying to pull him into reality would take up such a huge amount of my time — time that I could be spending selling homes in Elk Grove and closing them — that I was probably better off focusing on the sellers who really need my expertise.
I really, really like all of my clients. I’m successful in this business because I keep it that way. If you’ve got a home to sell in Elk Grove or anywhere within the Sacramento area, I’ve probably recently closed a sale or two in your neighborhood. So, call Elizabeth Weintraub. I’d love to talk with you. My cell is 916.233.6759.
Can a Sacramento Real Estate Agent Guarantee Service?
How can you guarantee a client will be perfectly happy with your services? I mean, you might be providing extraordinary service and your client could be half bonkers, unable to recognize this gift of superior excellence. Or, you could be a crummy Sacramento real estate agent or doesn’t give a crap what others think — rendering any guarantee of happiness and satisfaction totally worthless. I believe a guarantee of satisfaction means the person providing the service will make it right. It’s not like if one finds a fly in one’s soup one can be served another bowl of soup, but it’s a similar concept.
I offer my clients a 100% guarantee of satisfaction. If they are unhappy for some reason, I will go to any lengths to make them happy. The secret is to try to not let it get to the part where they are unhappy. Sometimes, it’s beyond an agent’s control. For example, let’s say I explain over and over to a seller that when we get the short sale approval letter, we will most likely be given 30 days to close escrow. I explain the entire short sale process. I talk about how quickly we’ll receive an offer, the 6 to 8 weeks it will probably take to get the offer approved by the bank, and then the 30 days to close.
I’ve been selling real estate long enough to know there are some words a client does not hear, and if the words are heard, they might not be understood. Thirty days to close is one thing if a client is thinking about the 30 days between March 1st to March 31st. It’s quite another when she realizes if a sale closes on March 30th, she might not find a place to move because most rentals are available on April 1st. That’s a dilemma.
Fortunately, I have an answer for that. Another agent might say, nope, you’ve gotta close on March 30th. The bank said so, and the bank rules. This agent whose blog you are reading will, on the other hand, work to make her seller happy. I promised her.
So, now we have a closing date of April 11th. It’s not just lip service or meaningless words I stick into my biography. I really mean it. A personal guarantee of 100% client satisfaction. That’s my mission.
Is Your Refrigerator Running?
I am tempted to ask what’s wrong with kids today but then a) I’d sound like that old man waving my fist and hollering: Get offa my lawn, you kids and b) I know what’s wrong, so why ask? Because I was a kid once. I know a thing or two about pranks. That’s the thing many of us older people tend to forget. Of course, I never walked down the path of my mother’s curse: Wait until you have children of your own, and she instead got to see the results of my curse, which was: Wait until you’re old enough for an Old Folk’s home.
You read about these little scoundrels who call the police and report made-up crimes at homes of celebrities. They even have a word for these pranks. It’s called swatting. These are serious crimes, too, like bomb threats at Ashton Kutcher’s house. Although, just sayin’, if a celebrity had to go I don’t know if I would much miss him.
When I was a kid, before I grew up to become a responsible Sacramento real estate agent, my siblings and I took great delight in calling people at random from the phone book, that big fat ol’ thing that sat next to the Sears catalog, and asking: Is your refrigerator running? Followed by, after the affirmative, well, you better go catch it. We’d slam down the phone and giggle with glee. Like it was the funniest thing ever. Is your refrigerator running sent us into spirals of doubled-over laughter. Then we got more clever.
It probably occurred to me from watching those Doris Day or Sandra Dee movies. Someone once said there are no original thoughts. Every thought stems from something else or we’ve heard it somewhere before. We’d look through the phone book until we found a man’s name who could have a great nickname. Married women weren’t listed in the phone book in the 1950s. Just the head of household, which was usually a man. If a married woman was listed, her name would be sub-indexed under her husband’s. So, if you were looking for her specifically, you wouldn’t find her if you didn’t know her husband’s name. See what a wealth of information I am about the old days?
But back to my story. I’d look for a guy named William or Thomas. Then, I’d call and when I was pretty sure it was his wife who answered the phone, I’d say: Is Billy home? Or, is Tommy home? You know where this is going, right? The wife would respond with whatever she would say, which usually ended with May I take a message? People were so polite; weren’t they polite? Unlike today, which would probably fall along the lines of what the hell do you want? To which we would blurt out in our sluttiest tone of voice: Well, you can tell Billy that if he stands me up again tonight at (name of X-rated club downtown), Desiree says it’s over! Then we’d slam down the phone and explode with laughter.
In retrospect, that was kind of mean. But it wasn’t like a bomb threat. It was just a prank. Like ringing a neighbor’s doorbell and running away. Not that I would know anything about that. Not like I do about is your refrigerator running.
Sorry we are experiencing system issues. Please try again.
